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Friday, November 1, 2013

80
Lakh Kirana outlets have been a number constantly quoted in various studies as
the first consumer choice for shopping across India. They have distinct
advantages that are obvious now; convenience, extension of credit, home
delivery & leveraging personal relationships. But threats from outside
& inside have ensured that they have evolved rapidly over the last 5 to 10
years.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

At Bing, we understand that search is more than simply finding information, it’s about taking action and gaining knowledge. Since Bing’s launch, we’ve talked about doing instead of searching, and how the web has changed from a collection of documents to a constantly growing digital version of life as we know it. At the same time, the devices and scenarios through which people experience the web are morphing at an accelerating rate. We no longer think about search as simply a box that people type into. We ‘search’ on maps using our fingers, ask our devices questions using our voice, use our social networks to figure out what’s happening, and even use our phone’s ‘eyes’ to navigate foreign cities. Search has never been asked to do so many things in so many different ways across so many devices. It’s time to change.

Nowhere has this been more obvious than with how people use Microsoft devices and services. We can now speak to our Xbox consoles to find and interact with digital entertainment. Our Windows Phones offer contextually relevant suggestions and can translate languages in real time. Bing image search is now part of Word, and Bing Maps part of Excel. Bing is now an important service layer for Microsoft, and we wanted to create a new brand identity to reflect Bing’s company-wide role. The new look integrates the “One Microsoft” vision both from a product perspective and visually.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Microsoft has been constantly adding new features to its Bing search site since it first launched in 2009 as a direct competitor to Google. However, it hasn't made much of a dent in Google's overall search market share. Today, the company announced its biggest overhaul of Bing since it started over four years ago. The changes starts with a new logo:

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

We select from several ad copy testing environments: online, depth interviews, mail surveys, or test ad campaigns. Method depends upon the stage of copy point development.

As a broad based marketing and advertising research company, our advertising copy testing research design approach for your firm or agency will develop a precise and specific ad copy testing research process. It will be tailored to your decision agenda. We employ advanced advertising testing research measurement, questionnaire, and data collection approaches to assess ad concept strength, and execution power using both qualitative and quantitative market research methods.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Market research online communities (MROC) make "social networking" usable for reliable marketing research. Using our specially designed research focused platforms -- a special Facebook-like community portal -- we create one to three month qualitative dialogs with your target audience.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

According to the American Marketing Association, market research is conducted to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Essentially, this information helps you to identify your target customer, assess your competition, and decide on a marketing plan.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Successful businesses have extensive knowledge about their customers and their competitors. Getting accurate and specific information about your customers and competitors is a critical first step in market investigation and development of a marketing plan. Accurate market assessment and development of an effective plan is critical to the success of both new and existing businesses. The market impacts and directs all aspects of the company's activities and ultimately will lead to success or failure of the business. In developing a market plan, your primary functions are to understand the needs and desires of your customer, select or develop a product or service that will meet customer needs, develop promotional material that will make the customer aware, and ensure product or service delivery.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

New markets can mean markets in a new location or country. However, on a more practical level, a new market is simply a set of customers who have not purchased from you before. This means that a new market could be customers in a different part of town, socio-economic group, country or industry.

Friday, October 11, 2013

The purpose of market research is to validate and inform a company’s planning assumptions regarding their strategy, target customer, product, and marketing communications. Technology start-ups have unique research needs. They differ from more established companies in that their market, product category, technology and competition are difficult to define. This means that the relevant market research techniques for start-ups vary from those used by bigger companies.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

There are several ways to categorize the various market research methods. The vast majority of techniques fit into one of six categories: (1) secondary research, (2) surveys, (3) focus groups, (4) interviews, (5) observation, or (6) experiments/field trials.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

It might be
a one-off "ad hoc" study (conducted at one particular time for a
single customer) or an on-going study (panel). In the case of an opinion survey
the sample is based on quotas (one defines the structure of the sample and
constructs it) or by random selection.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Successful businesses have extensive knowledge about their customers and their competitors. Getting accurate and specific information about your customers and competitors is a critical first step in market investigation and development of a marketing plan. Accurate market assessment and development of an effective plan is critical to the success of both new and existing businesses. The market impacts and directs all aspects of the company's activities and ultimately will lead to success or failure of the business. In developing a market plan, your primary functions are to understand the needs and desires of your customer, select or develop a product or service that will meet customer needs, develop promotional material that will make the customer aware, and ensure product or service delivery.

Market Analysis

Who is your customer?

Knowledge of the customer enables you to determine the market size and what determines their buying decision. It provides information that will help you choose a location, determine the product or services to offer, establish pricing, and plan a selling strategy.

Key issues to consider are:

Who will buy your product? Primary and secondary target groups.

Where do the buyers live and what is their profile?

What factors influence the decision to buy?

Who is involved in the purchase decision?

How often will buyers buy?

Where do they buy, when and how much do they buy?

What are the buyers' preferences and needs?

Are customers loyal? Can long-term relationships be built?

What product or service are you selling?

An important aspect of market analysis is to ensure that the product or service meets the market (customer) needs. Product or service focus must be the customer.

Issues to address are:

Specifications of all your products and/or services and key features relative to what prospective buyers in your target market say they need.

Comparison with competitors and how customers perceive your product relative to others available.

What are the current trends, what stage of maturity is the product life cycle at?

What regulations apply to your product or service?

What packaging is required?

Who is your competition?

Are there competitors that exist now and what new competitors are likely to enter the market? How will your product or service compare and what is the probable reaction of your competitors once you enter the market?

How do you compare to your competitors and how will they react to your entry into the market?

What factors could increase or reduce your competition?

What is your target market?

Accurate identification and analysis of the target market enables you to develop an effective overall marketing strategy. The information will assist in determining business size (output requirements), distribution channels, pricing, promotion strategy, and other marketing decisions.

Target market issues include:

What is the overall market size? Number of potential customers and physical boundaries?

Which segment of the market is the most attractive in terms of future growth potential, ease of entry, competition, profit potential, and overall risk?

How do products generally get to the customer?

What is the current dollar value or quantity of product/service being sold into each segment of the market?

What social, technical, environmental or economic changes are taking place within the market and how will they impact sales?

What are your distribution channels?

There may be many options for moving your product to the customer such as direct retail, wholesale, consignment, broker etc. The method of distribution has important implications affecting your pricing structure, advertising message, cash flow, etc. You will want to choose the distribution method best suited for your product and where you want to be positioned in the marketplace.

Key issues are:

What methods of distribution are best suited for your product?

What methods of distribution do your competitors use?

What are the costs relative to market coverage?

Does your level of available capital or production capacities restrict your choice of distribution methods?

Are there ownership opportunities in the supply chain?

Pricing

The goal is to maximize profits while remaining competitive in the marketplace. Pricing can be based on either the cost price or market price (What will the market pay?). Regardless of the pricing method used, it is critical to know all of your costs involved in the delivery of your product or service to avoid possible under pricing and operating losses. If the market will not support a price level sufficient to cover cost, you will have to investigate whether costs can be lowered or alternatively, it may be necessary to abandon your plans to proceed.

Issues to consider are:

What control do you have over the product price (i.e. exclusive product, no competition, high market demand, etc.)?

What are competitor prices and how do they price their products?

What price and sales volume are needed to achieve profit objectives?

Can you sell your product at different prices into different markets?

Can you maintain your prices over time and what do you expect to happen to competitors' prices?

Are your prices quantity sensitive?

Promotion and Selling

Promotion of your product or service and development of a promotion strategy is part of the market analysis. It is important to analyze what are the best methods of making your customers aware and what message will motivate them to buy. From the promotion strategy, the advertising budget and overall sales plan are then developed.

Note: While customer service, in-store display and merchandising are not part of the market analysis; they are an important part of the business image and promotion package. Ongoing attention should be given to these areas to assure maximum promotional benefit is achieved and so that the desired image is portrayed.

Primary / Secondary Data Sources

Primary data is the information you will obtain through your own efforts or by hiring someone, and can include observation, surveying, and experimentation.

Secondary data consists of information which has been gathered by someone else and is relevant to the venture you want to establish. Examples of sources and types include:

Canada Business service centre in your region

Statistics Canada 1-800-263-1136

Canada Post - 1-800-267-1177

Local, municipal, provincial, and federal government departments and agencies

When researching your business idea, it is important to do as thorough a search for information as possible. It is also recommended to do as much of it as you can on your own. This will help you to know the market for your idea better, and can help to keep the costs down at the start. Once this initial research has been completed, you may then feel the need to contract professional services to collect additional information for you, or to verify the information you have collected so far. The information you have gathered yourself can form an important base of information from which a consultant can work. It will allow you to identify more specifically what you want him/her to do for you, particularly when there will be costs associated with his/her services.

While there are many ways to perform market research, most businesses use one or more of five basic methods: surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, observation, and field trials. The type of data you need and how much money you’re willing to spend will determine which techniques you choose for your business.